CONTACT FILED: ELEANOR TINSLEY
Eleanor Tinsley and HISD Superintendent, Rod Paige, look at a rendering of the new Eleanor Tinsley Elementary School before the groundbreaking ceremony at 11035 Bob White onCONTACT FILED: ELEANOR TINSLEY
Eleanor Tinsley and HISD Superintendent, Rod Paige, look at a rendering of the new Eleanor Tinsley Elementary School before the groundbreaking ceremony at 11035 Bob White on 06/20/00. Photograph by Betty Tichich. HOUCHRON CAPTION (06/21/2000): Former Houston City Councilwoman Eleanor Tinsley and HISD Superintendent Rod Paige look over a rendering of the new Eleanor Tinsley Elementary School before the groundbreaking at 11035 Bob White on Tuesday. The Houston Independent School District board approved naming the school for Tinsley, also a former HISD board member, in May. To be built from funds from the $678 million bond issue approved in 1998, the school is to open in August 2001. In 1983, Tinsley founded the SPARK program, a nonprofit group that, to date, has created more than 120 community parks on public school grounds.

Photo: Sharon Steinmann, Staff

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Eleanor Tinsley (cq), former city council woman and beautification advocvate who championed the city's 1980 sign ordinance to regulate billboards, poses for a photo in her Houston high-rise on Thursday, Dec.Eleanor Tinsley (cq), former city council woman and beautification advocvate who championed the city's 1980 sign ordinance to regulate billboards, poses for a photo in her Houston high-rise on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007, in Houston.
( Sharon Steinmann / Chronicle )

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Staff

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Eleanor Tinsley (cq), claps as one of 800 billboards is removed Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, at the intersection of Polk and Roberts Streets in Houston. The City of Houston is trying to get rid of 1,500 remainingEleanor Tinsley (cq), claps as one of 800 billboards is removed Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, at the intersection of Polk and Roberts Streets in Houston. The City of Houston is trying to get rid of 1,500 remaining billboards located in residential communities saying it brings blight. ( Nick de la Torre / CHRONICLE )

Photo: John Everett, Staff

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CONTACT FILED: LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS-HOUSTON
Former Houston Mayor Kathy Whitmire, center, shares stories with former Houston City councilwoman Eleanor Tinsley, left, and current Harris Co. Commissioner SylviaCONTACT FILED: LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS-HOUSTON
Former Houston Mayor Kathy Whitmire, center, shares stories with former Houston City councilwoman Eleanor Tinsley, left, and current Harris Co. Commissioner Sylvia Garcia following a fund-raising luncheon and panel discussion sponsored by the League of Women Voters on 1-30-03. HOUCHRON CAPTION (01/31/2003): Former Houston Mayor Kathy Whitmire, center, shares stories Thursday with former City Councilwoman Eleanor Tinsley, left, and Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia at a fund-raising luncheon and panel discussion sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

Photo: Elizabeth Conley, Staff

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Kathleen Ownby, daughter of Houstonian Eleanor Tinsley, at the school named after her mother on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, in Houston. ( Elizabeth Conley / Houston Chronicle )

Photo: Buster Dean, HC Staff

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01/1980 - Houston city council member Eleanor Tinsley listens during council meeting.

Photo: Carrie Tucker, HC Staff

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02/1980 - Eleanor Tinsley, Houston City council member, speaks about women in Houston politics from 1950 to the present as part of a 10-week lecture series focusing on Women in Houston presented by the Houston02/1980 - Eleanor Tinsley, Houston City council member, speaks about women in Houston politics from 1950 to the present as part of a 10-week lecture series focusing on Women in Houston presented by the Houston Public Library.

Photo: Elizabeth Conley, Staff

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Kathleen Ownby, daughter of Houstonian Eleanor Tinsley, at the school named after her mother on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, in Houston. ( Elizabeth Conley / Houston Chronicle )

Photo: Elizabeth Conley, Staff

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Kathleen Ownby, daughter of Houstonian Eleanor Tinsley, at the school named after her mother on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, in Houston. ( Elizabeth Conley / Houston Chronicle )

Photo: Buster Dean, HC Staff

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Eleanor Tinsley was elected to the City Council in 1979 - unseating a 20-year incumbent - but was denied office space on "their floor" at City Hall for the first two years by male council members.

Eleanor Whilden Tinsley was a stylish stay-at-home mom who'd taught piano lessons and Sunday school when a trio of men arrived at her suburban ranch house in 1969, her son recalls. They sought to recruit her to run for school board as part of a slate to finally end segregation in the Houston public schools - more than 15 years after the Supreme Court had officially outlawed it.

In those days, the KKK held regular rallies in the region, and the Houston ISD board had long been dominated by an ultraconservative cabal that had resisted federal court orders to integrate.

At first, Tinsley, then 43, figured reformers might prefer her husband, James, a bookish University of Houston history professor who'd been her sweetheart since their Baylor University days. Instead, they sought Mrs. James A. Tinsley, a lifelong Baptist who wore gloves, hats and Ferragamo heels and who'd been a politely persuasive member of the Parents' League. Her son Tom, who later dubbed the trio the "Masterminds," was the lone dissenter in the 4-1 family vote for her entry into political life.

Today, Tinsley's best known as the namesake of a popular Buffalo Bayou park that offers fireworks, festivals and an unparalleled view of the Houston skyline. But friends and longtime fans remember her as a true steel magnolia who for 40 years won fights others believed unwinnable - desegregating schools, breaking the gender barrier on the Houston City Council and deftly forging alliances to pass ordinances that banned billboards, required bike helmets and fluoridated water and created no-smoking zones in stadiums and bars - reforms opposed in their time by fearmongers, civil libertarians and even well-funded lobbies like Big Tobacco. "I'm just not afraid to tackle difficult issues, and I think my record speaks to that," Tinsley said in a 1987 Houston Post profile.

Early on, as a member of that school desegregation slate, Tinsley adopted the strategy of Vietnam War-era U.S. Army commander Creighton Adams, who said: "When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time." Within weeks, the principals of more than 100 schools and 3,300 teachers were handed reassignments. Within a year, the board ousted the longtime superintendent and recruited a progressive young Michigan executive. Meetings overflowed. Tinsley got death threats. Garbage was dumped on her lawn.

Two of Tinsley's three children were still in school, and Tom, a rising senior at Westbury High, protested an involuntary rezoning to Madison, which seemed "on another planet" to him. "On a public and personal level, I believe in equal opportunity for all people," she later said in a speech. "I supported the integration of the school system. I could not make an exception for my son."

Tinsley persevered. Her son finished school at Madison - and met lifelong friends. But then the conservative bloc managed to oust HISD's new superintendent by persuading one of her allies to defect. Tinsley battled back, became board president in 1972 and obtained votes to rehire the ousted executive. Next, she went on to launch Houston Community College, insisting that, too, would increase opportunities for Houston youth. In a post-integration backlash, Tinsley lost her school board seat in 1973.

But Tinsley remained active in civic circles, and five years later, announced a bid for City Council - ignoring the fact that no women had ever served and targeting a 20-year incumbent named Frank Mann. Tinsley, a longtime member of the progressive South Main Baptist Church, already enjoyed support from pro-integration Jewish activists and African-Americans and added members of the city's Gay Political Caucus to her inner circle.

In one raucous council meeting, Mann, a Houston lawyer and former legislator, had shouted down gays who'd complained about police mistreatment by saying: "You're abnormal! You need to see a psychiatrist." In his campaign, he dubbed Tinsley supporters "oddwads and homosexuals." The tactic backfired. The Gay Political Caucus produced 50,000 endorsement cards for Tinsley, and she raised $170,000 - a huge sum then. Her victory, in a runoff, is referenced in history books on the rise of America's gay civil rights movement.

On council, Tinsley surrounded herself with brilliant female advisers, including longtime aide Madeleine Appel. Their first meetings were held around a pingpong table in an enclosed porch that previously served as a game room for Tinsley's children. For her first two years, the male at-large members denied her office space on "their floor" at City Hall. When they finally reconsidered, Tinsley agreed to change floors - if a gleaming art deco sign over the reception area labeled "councilmen" was altered. Soon, a slightly off-center "council" replaced the term she'd found offensive.

At various times, Tinsley's foes labeled her a "communist," a "busybody" and even a dictator with a "feudalistic society mentality." Appel has saved a long typed list of ordinances that Tinsley engineered: establishing setbacks for buildings, a tree preservation program, the Archeological and Historical Commission, a 911 emergency network, the city's mounted patrol and many, many more.

Through it all, her husband, James, served as her sounding board, closest adviser and evening meeting chauffeur.

She served 16 years before term limits forced her to step down in 1996. Then 69, she reflected: "I am proud of my 25 years as a politician, because for me being a politician has meant being a public servant. It has meant participating in life instead of being a bystander," according to a copy of a speech Appel kept. Tinsley remained active both as a volunteer and as a grandmother until she died of cancer in 2009.

One of her projects retains a prominent place at City Hall. Tinsley founded the SPARK program that since its inception in 1983 has forged partnerships and built 200 playgrounds accessible to the public at schools across the region. Her eldest daughter, Kathleen Ownby, joined SPARK as a young working mom and volunteer and runs the office that's housed in the City Hall annex today. Today one SPARK park sits just outside Eleanor Tinsley Elementary School.